The New Rules of Grilling

After a successful career as a bass guitarist in various indie rock bands, Bryan Mayer, age 41, decided to switch disciplines and eventually settled on butchering. He read a few books, hacked apart some animals and trained under some "old school" butchers from Austria and Germany who may or may not have learned how to cut meat in prison. Mayer now serves as head butcher (and co-owner) at Philadelphia's Kensington Quarters, a whole animal butcher shop and restaurant. "Butchering is like playing music or painting, you learn from all the masters and then you go find your own way," Mayer says. To help you find your own way, Mayer has offered up the following seven new rules for buying the cut of meat you want and grilling it up to perfection.

Courtesy of Kensington Quarters

1. Think Outside the Beef Box

It's easy as hell to pick ribeye. We try to lead people to new things, like butterflied legs of lamb and goat. People tend to look at lamb as a rib rack, and goat as a curried goat, but taking the bone out of either, butterflying it, and throwing it on the grill like you would any other steak is delicious. Plus, you can feed a ton of people. Lamb prices are climbing but it costs a lot less than a strip, a ribeye, or a porterhouse. Look for shoulder chops, either a round bone or a shoulder blade chop. Cut them about an inch thick and they are wonderful on the grill.

2. Don't Love Me Tender

As a culture, we've exalted tenderness as this end-all, be-all thing. But it's a fine line: we don't want to talk about something being not tender, but there are things that you have to chew and that's not bad. That's why we have teeth. The muscles that are worked, like the leg muscle or the shoulder muscle, are so much more flavorful than the ubiquitous tender cut.

Clay Williams

3. Pay more, buy less

The amount of meat out there that comes from local farms accounts for what, one percent? Obviously, that and a couple other factors, like the fact that the animals are alive longer, is going to equate to creating a more expensive product. But the fact that these animals are out on a pasture and eating a diet that they are supposed to be eating on a local farm means they are much more nutrient dense. You don't have to have as much to get the same nutritional value. You don't need half a pound; get four ounces.

4. Ask questions

It can be intimidating to go into your local butcher shop but don't be afraid. Go in with an open mind and without any preconceived notion. Ask questions. I wouldn't want to shop anywhere for any product where the seller didn't want to answer questions. It's totally okay to ask those sort of questions that maybe people have made fun of people for asking: Where does it come from? What are the practices? How do I cook this? There are a lot of people out there calling themselves experts with very little to back that up. Don't feel ashamed. Ask.

Clay Williams

5. Grass, and only grass

Ruminants – cows, sheep, and goats – should be grass fed. When you introduce grains into their stomachs, you are taking something that's a base PH-wise and creating an acidic environment. That is really unhealthy for the animal. If they only eat grass, you'll love the way they taste because they are picking up the terroir.

6. Older is better

Buy and eat older animals. There's a cut off. The USDA will make you cut out the spine of a cow that's over 30 months as a caution against mad cow but on average, a fully pastured grass-fed beef animal is alive at least a year longer than conventional cattle, which are killed at about 14 months. All that time when they are walking around, eating grass, and doing cow stuff is when the animal is developing muscles and flavor. They are a little less tender but I think the taste is so much better.

There are things you can do to older animals like hanging the carcasses longer to improve the taste, too. In the conventional business, they hang them for the minimal amount of time. We hang them for two or three weeks to allow gravity and enzymes to do their work. Then you don't need to get into the 60-day, 90-day, 120-day dry rub.

Courtesy of Kensington Quarters

7. Grill like you cook

I don't care if you use gas, charcoal, or wood. Treat your grill like your stove-top and oven — with a hot zone, and a cool zone. Sear one side and then the other, and then move the meat off to the cool zone to finish it through. And before cooking, get your meat to room temperature, because you don't want to cook a cold steak.

As for the best steak prep, I go super simple. Salt it. Cook it. And hit it with a little pepper after. If you're going to grill burgers, do it on a flat surface. Use a skillet or a sheet pan on top of your grate, so that you don't let that delicious fat drip down into your coals. You want that fat to render.

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